Video displays are commonly used to display information to a user. As is well known, a video display may be associated with a computing device, with the display presenting information regarding the device or one or more operations which may be performed with or by the device. Graphical user interfaces or “GUI's” are commonly used to display this information to a user. These interfaces may have a variety of forms, comprising displayed text and/or objects such as representations of windows, buttons, sliders and the like.
A graphical user interface is generally arranged to make it more simple for the user to obtain information and interact with the computing device. Unfortunately, there are problems which make these functions difficult to achieve.
First, it is often desirable to display on a single display information regarding a plurality of tasks. For example, in a computing environment, a computing device may run several applications at the same time. It is desirable to present information to a user about each of these multiple applications at the same time, or individually in a manner permitting selection between them.
In many instances, multiple users may wish to interact with the computing device. Each of these users may need to interact with the device in a different manner, requiring that different information be displayed to each of these users. In some cases, each of these users may interact with the computing device utilizing the same video display.
In some instances, the apparatus which is used to interact with the computing device may vary. For example, one or more users may interact with a computing device using several different workstations. Some of these work stations may include video displays permitting touch-input only. Other of the work stations may include a keyboard, mouse or other user controllable input device.
It is desirable to provide improved methods and apparatus for configuring and navigating a graphical user interface.